Sunday, October 5, 2014

Here Comes the Devil (2014)

While many horror films will garner mixed reviews overall
from various sites and reviewers, I usually stick to particular ones for
recommendations. It was from these various sources that I kept hearing about Here
Comes the Devil and how creepy it was. This Mexican horror flick is
definitely creepy at times, but the overall quality and flow of the film didn’t
do a whole lot for me as it randomly shifted gears throughout and tried to
balance out the grindhouse aspects with the arthouse elements.

During a family outing on the outskirts of town, two young
kids (Garcia and Martinez) go missing in the rocky hillside. Stricken with
grief, their parents (Caro and Barreiro) vow to figure out what happened to
their children. It doesn’t take long for the kids to magically reappear though
and it leaves the spouses relieved but slightly confused. When their kids begin
to act relatively odd in the aftermath though they decide they need to figure
out just what happened in that time span.

"Aw shit, contacts went white again."

The most intriguing aspect about Here Comes the Devil
arises from its rapidly changing focuses throughout the film. For some this
leaping of styles might be considered unique or clever as director Bogliano
even goes as far as jumping into different horror subgenres, but to be honest,
I found it utterly distracting and disjointed. The film starts off as a pure
grindhouse flick opening on a lesbian sex scene before rapidly exploding into a
gruesome serial killer sequence (which knowing the synopsis ahead of time had
me slightly confused) before it heads off towards the main chunk of the film
with the parents and their missing children. At this point, outside of some
more random sex sequences, the film takes on a more realistic approach to the
film focusing on a dysfunctional family environment and even goes as far as
moving into torture-esque revenge territory as the parents become convinced
that their children have been molested by a weird man on the outskirts of the
city. It’s not until the final act does the truly creepy aspects of the film
come into play (shifting into a possession film at this point) and we get some
clever twists that actually work. It’s like a massive roller coaster ride as Here
Comes the Devil shifts tone and focus to get film going and unfortunately,
I wasn’t fully enjoying the ride.

The execution is solid enough with some subtle and
impressive performances from the two main adult actors and the sound editing and
visuals definitely work for the heavy atmosphere of the film, even if a random
sequence featuring a scared babysitter gets rather trippy for the sake of
trippy. The kids don’t get a lot of time to show a ton of their skills as most
of the film requires them to simply be odd and it does hinder the impact of
their change that could have sold the film even further. The random bits of
gore and supernatural elements work for what they are in the horror aspects and
do add a bit of pizzazz to a film that’s mostly focused on being emotionally
heavy.

Didn't mother ever teach you not to play under boulders?

In the end though, it doesn’t matter how well a film is
executed if the foundation it is built on is flawed which is the case with Here
Comes the Devil. The awkward shifts of tone and focus for the film
undermined the entire experience and atmosphere of the film enough that it was
hard for me to even keep my attention on what the endgame of the film was let
alone be drug into its deeper elements. Many of the attempted messages of
parenting and marital issues are undermined by the grindhouse aspects (we get
it, sex is symbolically evil and bad things happen when sex is involved) and in
the end I found Here Comes the Devil to be a series of missed
opportunities instead of an artful horror flick. I seem to be in the minority
on this one though, so take it with a grain of salt. Here Comes the Devil
is definitely an experience to watch – good or bad.

Osaka Asian Film Festival 2018

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